And Then I Met Sanjo...

By Sharmila Vedantha

I first met Sanjo under the most unusual circumstances!

Sometime during the winter of 2012, I was visiting Hyderabad and my editor wanted me to get an interview with a rather unique musician with a rather unusual name: Sanjo. Even his show was distinctly offbeat by the standards of present-day entertainment. For one, it wasn’t even set in the present day; Sanjo’s show has a distinctly retro flavour with songs dating back to the fifties and sixties.

So, naturally, I was expecting a grey-haired or bald person in his fifties with a paternal air, someone who would patronisingly try and explain the finer points of his show to a greenhorn reporter like me.

We spoke on the phone several times. Sanjo was extremely soft-spoken, to such an extent that on several occasions I had to say, “I beg your pardon, could you please repeat that.” So now, I had a mental picture of a soft-spoken grey-haired or bald person in his fifties, but someone who was warm, friendly and easy to talk to.

We just could not manage to synchronise our calendars. When I was free, Sanjo was busy with shows. When Sanjo was free, I was caught up in submission deadlines and other schedule-related hassles that junior journalists must endure.

Finally, it was time for Sanjo to leave for New Delhi. On that same day, I was scheduled to fly back to Mumbai. I timidly suggested meeting at the airport, expecting an irritated or angry retort from this elderly artiste. Instead he agreed quite readily. He told me that he always reached the airport well in advance and would, therefore, have enough time to catch up with me. I thanked him profusely and we agreed that we would meet in front of the W. H. Smith store.

I reached the airport (the Hyderabad Airport is simply breathtaking), checked in and made my way to the W. H. Smith shop. I looked around. I was disappointed. There wasn’t any sign of Sanjo. There were two ladies from Ghana in all their colourful sartorial splendour nattering away in their native language. A couple of seats away, a slightly-built young man in his late twenties sat looking around, waiting for someone.

As I approached, the young man stood up and asked in a tentative tone: “Sharmila?”

I was flabbergasted! “Sorry”, I blurted out, “I was expecting a much older person.”

Sanjo smiled. In the course of our subsequent interaction I would discover, several times in fact, that it was the sort of smile that could cause one’s heart to skip a beat!

“But I am an older person”, smiled Sanjo, “much older than you.”

I didn’t buy that. So we played a quick game of Guess-Sanjo’s-Age. The highest I was willing to bid was 32 years. It turned out that Sanjo was a little over 50!

Well, that would at least explain the retro flavour of his shows!

We started talking. The conversation was scintillating. Sanjo is extremely easy to talk to and in no time at all, I was left feeling as though I had known him all my life!

Sanjo was in Hyderabad to perform his show ‘The Songs of The Balladeer’ at LaMakaan in Banjara Hills. The show comprises a musical storytelling session with Sanjo taking on the mantle of a Balladeer and taking his audience on a fascinating journey into songs that tell stories (ballads), the stories behind the songs and the stories behind the artistes who created the songs. His show is peppered with interesting anecdotes and bits of trivia, and is highly interactive.

Across the two-hour concert, the mood swings dramatically from sombre antiwar themes to tongue-in-cheek pub songs, heart-warming love songs and ballads with strong social messages.

The show was a big success and the music curators at LaMakaan asked him to repeat the show on his next visit to Hyderabad. The show had been initiated by Sashi Evani of Livenergi, a Hyderabad-based artiste and event management organisation that manages Sanjo in India. Sashi had discussed the concept of the show with Subbareddy Adapala of LaMakaan who felt that the event was perfect for the evolved and discerning audience that typifies LaMakaan.

I could have gone on talking to Sanjo for hours but it was time for me to board my flight to Mumbai. So I unwillingly took leave. I had recorded the interview and all through my journey, I kept listening to the recording, fascinated by the many facets that Sanjo offered as a thinker, an artiste and as a creative personality.

A few days after my story was printed, I received a call from a weird phone number. I answered expecting to be told that some deposed dictator somewhere in Africa wanted me to manage his ill-gotten funds in India. Instead I found myself speaking with a Japanese gentleman. He introduced himself as Jigo; he said he was the Managing Director of the label that handled Sanjo’s music and that he had got my number from a mutual friend. He congratulated me on the article I had written on Sanjo and ‘The Songs of The Balladeer’. He then asked me whether I would take on the mantle of being Sanjo’s official blogger.

My mind flew back to the experience of sitting face-to-face with Sanjo at the Hyderabad Airport. I thought back on how exciting those forty-five odd minutes had been. And I said, “Yes!”

That is how this blog started.